Time Will Tell
by carlycarter
Summary: Myka's musings about HG Wells. 'Myka doesn't know whose side she is on anymore. She doesn't know who she is anymore. She doesn't know what she wants.'
1. Chapter 1

AN: Title shamelessly stolen from episode! Compete and utter time wasting as i'm procrastinating finishing my Pete/Myka fic. One parter- Myka's musings about HG Wells- inspired by S2 Ep1. All in Myka's head and no real point to this at all...Take it for what it is and enjoy :)

There is something about HG Wells that wakes Myka from her restless slumber in the early hours of the morning.

There is more than one thing, actually.

She hadn't known that when a person is bronzed they are still entirely conscious. That horrifies her. It plays on her conscience, relentlessly. It was truly a fate worse than death. It causes Myka to wonder just what this woman could have done that could possibly be so bad to warrant that kind of extreme eternal punishment?

She hadn't known that HG Wells was a woman. That takes her by surprise. And not just any woman. But a woman who looked straight at her, straight through her. Somehow, this woman struck a chord in Myka. She could relate to the tale of bitter disappointment, or injustice. She herself being a woman who had been looked down upon day after day, simply for not being the boy her father wanted.

She relates to something else in this woman- that drive to be free. She recalls her own fleeting experience in that looking glass. She wonders if there was anything she wouldn't have done to get the hell out of there. She wonders, sometimes, about Alice. Had Alice always been crazy, reckless, remorseless, psychotic? Or was it those long lonely years trapped in that mirror that transformed her? She wonders what the years of imprisonment did to HG Wells.

Myka thinks to herself that she would have liked to know the other woman, back then. A creative and passionate and courageous woman. A trail blazer. She thinks to herself she would like to know the woman now. She wants to know her story. She wants to understand. She feels connected.

Something resonated in her as the other woman's eyes probed her soul. The injustice of it all. She feels like they share some sort of common ground.

But Myka knows, it's all in her head. She knows, it's crazy. She knows, it's wrong.

There are years between them, lifetimes. A great great divide of right and wrong. The 'connection' was purely a fabrication in her own mind.

She closes her eyes, she tries not to think.

She closes her eyes and she sees HG Wells standing before her. She sees HG Wells fawning all over Pete. It stirs a twinge of envy in her. More than a twinge. A painful piercing stab of jealousy. She finds it profoundly unsettling.

As she tries to drift off to sleep, she sees it in her head so clearly- the future unfolding right before her in vivid imagination. One day, they might catch HG Wells. One day HG Wells might stand before her again. One day, their eyes might lock. One day the fate of HG Wells might rest in her hands. One day, she might have to make a decision.

Myka isn't sure she has what it takes to get the job done. Isn't sure she wouldn't melt under the other woman's condemning stare. Those piercing eyes which seem to Myka to be calling out to her _'You know me, you're just like me, you understand me. How can you do this to me?'_

Myka knows logically there must be a reason. Something heinous and terrible that led to the bronzing of HG Wells. She needs to believe in that much, in Artie, in the work they do. She needs to believe she is on the side of the righteous. She knows that it's dangerous, leaving HG out there, regardless of the initial reason for her incarceration. She knows she is a rule-follower, she is by the book, she follows orders, she gets the job done. But she isn't sure anymore that she can believe in a 'book' that dictates a human beings should be incarcerated like that, for a lifetime, for many many lifetimes. Trapped in limbo. Unable to move, unable to die. It's barbaric and cruel. It's unconscionable.

Myka doesn't know whose side she is on anymore. She doesn't know who she is anymore. She doesn't know what she wants.

And, in her dreams, HG Wells is laughing at her. She is laughing because she has won. No matter what, she has won. She who isn't afraid to follow her dreams. She who isn't afraid to fight for her freedom at any cost. She who knows her own worth. She who knows who she is and isn't ashamed.

It's Myka who is trapped. Caught in an impossible choice. She can't live with herself knowing she caused another human being to be trapped for eternity. She simply can't do it. And yet she can't shirk her duty. She has a responsibility, to the Warehouse, to the public. She would lay down her life for her country. That's how it is supposed to be. But she just isn't sure anymore she can sacrifice the other woman's life for their cause.

In her dreams, Myka is haunted. The other woman has taken over her thoughts, invaded her mind. There is no where Myka can escape. She has to make her choice.

"_There is more than one way, Myka._" HG taunts her in a soft whisper.

That's when Myka realises, she doesn't have to set the woman free. She doesn't have to capture her and sentence her to eternal damnation either. There is more than one way.

All the while HG is smiling at her, challenging her to do it. Myka thinks that she must. One way or the other, she must end things.

She tells herself she is doing the other woman a favor, sparing her from eternal torment. She tells herself she is doing her job. She tells herself it's the right choice, the only choice. She tells herself that HG wants her to do it. She tells herself that if she does it, the woman will stop haunting her. Things will go back to normal.

She picks up her weapon and aims it, straight towards the other woman's head. She takes a deep breath...

And it's that point in the dream, always that exact moment, that Myka wakes in a cold sweat gasping for air.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Decided to add to the first part of this after this weeks ep, and all the great feedback on this piece :) Thanks so much to everyone who left such enthusiastic comments! Really great to see more fans of Myka and HG out there! So this is just more of Myka's musings about HG Wells after 2:07. Nothing really graphically femslash (at this stage) so don't get too excited. Just pointless rambling really, but enjoy!

_**Chapter 2 **_

Standing alone in the Warehouse, staring down at the small piece of paper trembling in her hands, Myka feels more alone than she has in a long time. The oppressive weight of solitude is crushing her. But more than loneliness, she feels something like abandoned. She feels, almost, betrayed. She thinks to herself that there is nothing HG Wells could have done that would have affected her more deeply- than disappearing like that.

The reunion had begun as anticipated- at gunpoint. That was the part Myka had always envisioned clearly. But what followed had been totally unexpected.

That HG vanished again, slipped through her fingers, Myka does not find altogether too surprising. Frustrating perhaps, but not surprising. What startles her, almost horrifies her, is that she misses the other woman's presence.

On the one hand she is sorry to see the back of HG Wells. Damn sorry. But on the other hand, she can't help being a little pleased that HG is free. She knows Artie and the regents would not relent. They must have had one hell of a reason for bronzing her in the first place. Something HG can't simply talk herself out of. And if anyone could talk themselves out of anything- it's HG Wells.

Myka shakes her head, trying to dislodge thoughts of HG Wells. She was being cleverly manipulated, she reminded herself. If there was one thing HG Wells knew how to do it was manipulate people. Perhaps that's why HG had approached her- sensing that she was an easy target, a push over. Myka reminds herself whose side she is on. Reminds herself where her loyalties lie. Because for a moment, she had entirely forgotten.

At home, laughing with Claudia as Artie lectured them, Myka had felt at home. Felt like things were made right, like she knew where she belonged in the world, like she was safe. But after the others had left, her thoughts turned instantly to HG Wells. The story had resonated within her- the feeling of being disconnected, of longing to be part of something again. To be part of the warehouse again.

As she listened to the other woman tell the story about her daughter, as she saw the grief and pain mingled in her eyes, it occurred to Myka that HG Wells was not that much better off than when she had been bronzed. The people she loved are gone. The times she knew are gone. Everything is foreign to her.

Myka was amazed the way HG Wells was able to turn the tables so completely and make Myka feel like the criminal. Myka won't easily forget the look of righteous anger in HG Wells eyes when Myka had asked what she had taken from the Escher vault. Myka realised in that moment, that HG merely took back what was hers- her life, her possessions. It was the warehouse that had stolen from her, not the other way around.

Myka doesn't quite believe HG Wells is an innocent victim. She wants to believe her, and that's almost the same thing. She wants it badly. She doesn't know why it is so important to her to believe in the other woman. But it is. And HG was right. Myka did believe in her, just a little, right from the beginning. Or she never would have let her get away. She never would have given up talking to Artie about it. She wanted this, she admits it. She wanted HG Wells to have a chance. To be free. To prove herself innocent.

Myka admits she enjoyed working with HG Wells. She is intelligent. Creative. Passionate. She hasn't lost her touch in those long lonely years of imprisonment. HG Wells is damn impressive in the field. Saved Claudia's life, as well as Myka's. And despite Myka's protests about the old fashioned equipment, she was affected. Perhaps it was the adrenalin- but as HG pulled her close, Myka's heart was racing. Her hands trembling uncontrollably. Her breath stolen from her. That moment in time Myka felt truly alive for the first time in a long long time. And she tells herself, HG felt it too. She must have- that's why she left the gift behind.

Myka finds herself closing her eyes, and longing for HG Wells to sneak up behind her. She would feign surprise, perhaps anger, even horror. For that's how they played the game-as enemies. But HG would see through it- would just know Myka was pleased to see her.

Myka misses HG Wells, misses the conversations, the interactions. Myka feels like they are on the same wavelength- something she just never felt with Pete, with Claudia, much as she adored them. She always felt the odd one out. Like she never quite understood their jokes, like they were always looking at her as if she ought to lighten up a little. HG never looked at her like that.

She misses the way HG would stand so close to her, unnecessarily and tantalisingly close, and yet it didn't feel uncomfortable in the least. She misses that smug smile, the seductive accent, the way that voice could make you believe in anything even against all your common sense. She misses the way HG looked to her, with respect. With understanding. There isn't anyone who looks at her like that. And in spite of everything, Myka admits the feeling is mutual. She respects the other woman deeply. She admires her. And it's not possible for her to walk away from the thing HG has to offer her.

As she walks alone back to the B&B, she dreams about turning around, catching a glimpse of HG Wells shimmering, like an illusion, in the moonlight. She knows it's all in her head. A fantasy. That even if HG Wells felt the same way about her, nothing could ever come of it. But she allows herself to imagine working together, side by side. Things may have changed in a hundred years, but Myka knows HG still has a thing or two to teach her. She thinks she could teach HG, too. She thinks they would make an unstoppable team.

So caught up is she in the insanity of her desires, that she fails to see the other woman, standing still in the distance, watching her every move.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Myka pulls her jacket closely around her as she makes her way back to the B&B. The air suddenly feels colder, the night seems a little bit darker than she remembered. Everything is still, quiet. Everything except her own tumultuous thoughts.

She shrieks in surprise as she feels the hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry!" Pete tells her. "Did I scare you?"

Despite only moments ago feeling so alone, she resents instantly Pete's intrusion into her space.

"Of course not." She answers, pulling herself together. Followed by "Don't sneak up on people like that!"

"Sneak up? I didn't sneak up on you. I called your name three times. You were lost in a world of your own."

"Was not." She protests.

"Everything ok?" He asks as they walk side by side. He is sweet to her. She sees the concern in his eyes, as always. But she finds herself annoyed. She resents it. Resents _him_. Subconsciously she has picked up her pace, anxious to be alone with her thoughts once again.

"Fine." She answers, in a tone that tells him to back the hell off and leave her alone.

She walks ahead of him, listening to his hesitant footsteps trailing behind her. She tells herself she ought to feel bad for wounding his feelings. But there is no room for that, for him, in her thoughts tonight.

She feels a distant terror taking hold of her as she makes her way silently to her room, shutting the door without a second glance to see if Pete is still behind her. It's a different terror to anything she has encountered in her life, in her work. It's not a fear for her own life, or for the people around her. It's not even fear for HG Wells.

It's a deep fear that the essence of who she is is slipping from her grasp. It's a deep sense of loneliness and isolation, which is ridiculous. Because she is surrounded, for the first time in her life, by people who consider her family. People she knows would lay down their very lives for her. And yet she has never, before this night, felt more alone. Entirely and utterly abandoned. Helpless.

Myka feels haunted, by the look in HG Wells eyes. Something she can't quite put her finger on, there are no words to articulate. But when she closes her eyes, always the other woman is before her.

She finds herself wishing somehow to turn back the clock, before she met HG Wells. Before all of this confusion and terror and longing. Before she had forged this unlikely connection with the other woman. She longs for the days she had been able to simply reach over and switch out the light, and fall asleep.

But on a deeper level, she doesn't wish to turn back the clock at all. She can't quite bring herself to wish the other woman out of her life. HG was here, a part of her, unmistakably. As if there had never been a time without her present. HG has a hold over her. It changes everything. Absolutely everything. But she can't bring herself to wish away the one person she ever felt truly connected to.

Staring out the window in the restless hours of the early morning, she sees it. She knows she sees it. HG Wells. Standing there, shrouded in darkness. Looking up at her, right at her, right through her, with that same haunted expression.

Myka blinks at the sight. And just as suddenly as she had appeared, HG is gone.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

Weeks went by with no contact from HG Wells. Weeks of sleepless nights. Weeks when it seemed to Myka that HG's hold over her grew stronger each day, instead of disintegrating in the other woman's painful absence. Every day, every minute, Myka wondered about her. Wondered what she was up to. If she was safe. Who she was talking with. Wondered if HG thought about her. And she could never quite shake the feeling that HG was watching her every move.

HG Wells had come up occasionally as topic of conversation at the Warehouse. Myka walked away, keeping her silence. She wasn't able to sit and listen to their slander, their lies. But she wasn't quite able to defend HG either. Who would believe it? It would only serve to draw unwanted attention to herself. And as it stood, the others hadn't quite stopped looking at her like she was crazy. Claudia not so much as Pete and Artie. Myka likes to think Claudia saw it too- that different side to HG Wells. Not at the same magnitude as Myka saw it, but something. Still, they never speak of it.

It's Pete who noticed something wasn't quite right with Myka, being the one she spent most of her time with, the intuitive one. On more than one occasion he had caught her staring off into space. Finally, he couldn't let it go on any longer.

She hears the knock at the door of her motel room while they are on a case in Florida.

"Are you ok?" Pete asks her when she opens the door to him wearily.

"Of course I am. Why would you ask?" She answers quickly. She will have to try harder to be in the here and now. Her own bitter experience taught her what happens to agents in the field who allow themselves to be distracted. For his sake, for hers, she will have to try harder to get it together.

"It kind of bugs me." He tells her as he invites himself inside.

"I'm sorry." She tells him. "You're right, I've been distracted. I haven't been sleeping well. You deserve better. Tomorrow I promise my mind is on the job." She assures him.

"Not that." He clarifies.

She is afraid to ask '_What then?' S_o she waits for him to spit it out.

"It's not like you. Going against Artie's orders like that." He announces awkwardly.

"What are you talking about?"

"You and Claudia ran into HG Wells and you never mentioned it to him. It just doesn't sit right with me." He admits.

She had never stopped to think Pete might be struggling with this, that he might not feel he could trust her anymore.

"Artie was sick..." She protests feebly, hearing the catch in her own voice and knowing that it didn't come anywhere close to satisfying him.

"He wasn't _that_ sick. And you could have mentioned it to me. But you said nothing, you just let her go." He accuses. "Do you have any idea how dangerous she is? I just don't understand what you were thinking."

"Excuse me, I was a little distracted saving Claudia's life." Myka defends herself. The trembling terror in her voice is all too real, as she recollects just how close she had come to losing Claudia. She doesn't bother with her protests of how HG Wells helped them, saved Claudia's life. She doesn't bother with her moral arguments about the evils of bronzing. Pete doesn't want to hear it, and it would only dig her in deeper. She can't fight the tears welling up in her eyes, and she can't tell anymore if they are tears for Claudia or something else. "I suppose that was my fault too. She's just a kid, and I was responsible for her in the field, and I almost got her killed." Myka adds.

She sees him hesitate, realising he has pushed a nerve. Hopefully she has made him uncomfortable enough to stop him looking too closely at her. To stop him wondering just what is eating her alive. .

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." His voice trails off. "It wasn't your fault Myka. And Claudia is ok..." He knows he is in dangerous territory.

"Goodnight Pete." She tells him as she shoves him out the door, closing it firmly behind him.

Sleep deprivation leads to insanity, and she can't remember the last time she slept. If she did chance to fall asleep, she found herself sucked down into tormenting nightmares about HG Wells. About bronzing. About everything. And nothing. She dreamed of darkness, tormenting piercing darkness. Of Screaming, horror filled screaming. Emptiness, reaching out for something she can never grasp. Of falling. Of the sky falling on her. She dreams of being bronzed. Frozen in time. She can't move, can't see, can't breathe. She is powerless, helpless, frustrated. But unlike death, there is no peace. Relief never comes.

She already knows, she won't sleep tonight.

And even though she has been thinking about nothing but HG Wells in the long lonely weeks, she is stunned as she turns from the door she had all but slammed in Pete Lattimer's face, and catches sight of the note on her pillow- seemingly appeared from nowhere.

_'Meet me downstairs. The water fountain. Midnight. It's important.' _

The note isn't signed. But Myka recognises the handwriting instantly. HG Wells.

It's difficult for Myka to believe she isn't dreaming, for she had dreamed many times of this. Her breath is stolen, her heart racing. She is suddenly aware of her own inadequate appearance. She is nervous. Shy. Her hands are shaking as she stands at the water fountain waiting.

"Agent Bering." She hears the melodic voice calling her name, and spins around to face the other woman.

She doesn't draw her gun this time, that game is growing wearisome. There is no need for pretence like that any longer. They have moved passed it.

"HG." Myka acknowledges her, wondering to herself why it feels so natural to use the initials instead of calling her by her first name.

There is awkward silence. HG smiles, enchantingly.

Myka finds herself suddenly uncomfortable. "You shouldn't have come here. Pete is upstairs. If he sees you..." She looks over her shoulder, paranoia sinking in. And partly just to avoid meeting HG in the eyes. The intensity radiating from the other woman is suffocating. Myka's heart fills with dread as she imagines Pete glancing outside his window right at that moment. As she imagines just what Pete would do if he encountered HG Wells. She couldn't have that on her conscience. "You should leave." Myka warns her.

"Don't fret, I've taken care of Agent Lattimer." HG assures her.

Myka tells herself she ought to be concerned by that prospect. Or in the very least curious as to the predicament her partner has found himself in. But there is only relief.

HG steps closer, that way she always did, closing the gap between them. She takes Myka by the hand "Relax." HG tells her gently. And suddenly there is nothing in the world, only HG Wells. Only her soft smooth skin caressing Myka's own hand, only her melodic voice softly whispering in Myka's ear "Trust me."

Everything else ceases to exist.


	5. Chapter 5

_**AN: **_Its for the benefit of everyone concerned that I don't write graphic sex scenes, trust me on that! So you'll have to use your imagination, sorry! I'm not sure if HG is up to no good, or not. I plan this from Myka's POV, about her struggle over whether to believe in HG, and whose side she wants to take etc. I'm not sure it matters much if HG is bad or not, Myka can't resist just the same. Not sure Myka will ever find out one way or the other either. I'm sure this won't be to everyone's liking, i'm struggling with this fic so much. Myka's crazy thoughts are fun to write, but actual interaction between them is not so easy. I think I'm going to run back and hide on the Myka/Pete ship after my extreme failure here. But for what it's worth, I didn't want to leave the story hanging...Chapter 5.

_**Chapter 5**_

Even though she has been thinking about nothing but HG Wells in the long lonely weeks, Myka is stunned to find herself face to face with the woman. Caught off guard the way she appears, seemingly from nowhere, almost as if she were a ghost. Which, by rights, is exactly what HG Wells ought to be.

Myka's breath is stolen, her heart is racing. She kicks the dirt with her shoe nervously. _This is ridiculous, this whole thing is insane_, she chides herself.

Myka feels like the ground is disintegrating beneath her feet. She feels like she is sinking. The one and only thing keeping her upright is HG Wells.

The woman moves closer still, if that's even possible. She pulls Myka's hand, as if leading a child. "Come." HG Wells whispers.

Myka does as she is told, following obediently behind the other woman in the darkness. After minutes of silence she opens her mouth to utter something along the lines of '_Where are we going?_'. But before she has even made a sound, HG turns to face her. She silences Myka with soft reassuring fingertips against her lips. Myka nods, compliantly. It doesn't really matter where they are going, she decides. She feels, just a little, like a lamb being lead to the slaughter. Still, she doesn't turn around. She doesn't scream for Pete. She doesn't make a move to break away from the other woman's hold. She simply doesn't have any desire to.

"Here we are." HG proclaims, almost victoriously.

"The beach?" Myka asks, confused.

Myka watches as HG Wells removes her shoes, a sight she finds oddly amusing. HG encourages Myka to do the same.

The forge onwards, sand shifting between their feet. There is silence but for the waves lapping against the shore

"I don't understand..." Myka begins.

"This place, is timeless. This ocean hasn't changed for over a hundred years, just like me." HG's eyes are sparkling at the familiarity of the ocean. And it hits Myka all over again how strange the world must be to the other woman. HG looks lost, so vulnerable, Myka fights the instinct to embrace her.

"Come." HG beckons. "Sit with me."

And they sit, side by side, in the moonlight.

"You said it was important.'" Myka prompts her. She can't quite bring herself to sit so still, so silent. She needs answers. She needs reassurance.

"It is." HG confirms. "I had to see you. And you are important. Terribly important."

Myka tries to hide the embarrassed smile creeping across her face. "You expect me to believe that?" She asks, even though she is thinking to herself that she wants desperately to believe it. But she can't let herself fall into that trap again.

"I have no expectations, believe what you wish." HG answers playfully. She reaches towards Myka, running her fingers through Myka's tangle of curls. Myka doesn't pull away. "There are so many things I never dared to believe in. I never dared to believe that i'd be de-bronzed one day. I never dared to believe i'd meet someone like you."

Myka closes her eyes, enjoining the sensation of the other woman's touch against her skin. "Like me?" Myka asks against her will.

"You are one of a kind, Myka Bering." It's the first time she's used the name. It captures Myka's heart instantly. She knows she wants never for anyone else to call her by her name again. It belongs to HG. It sounds different from HG's lips than anyone else's.

Myka shakes her head in disbelief.

"You don't think you're special?" HG asks her.

No, she has never thought of herself as special. But she doesn't answer. Instead she utters helplessly

"I really don't understand what you're doing here."

"I've made you uncomfortable."HG states, but there is no apology in her tone, only delight.

"Not at all." Myka protests, finding at last her mask of confidence to hide behind.

"I told you I wanted to see you." HG repeats, leaning tantalisingly close to the other woman's face.

"For what?" Myka manages to utter.

"This." HG answers, as she closes the gap between them, and kisses Myka gently, lovingly.

This may have been against Myka's better judgement, if she had stopped to weigh her thoughts at the time. But there was no choice about it. Her desire outweighs every other consideration. Myka feels loved, she feels warm, she feels safe and secure. She wouldn't trade that for anything in the world. She returns the kiss eagerly, surrendering to the other woman's touch. That's all the encouragement HG Wells needs.

XXX

Hours later, Myka wakes. Still on that beach. Sand in her hair. She feels a sense of peace, something that had been eluding her for weeks. She can feel the other woman's heart beating next to hers. She never wants to leave.

When she opens her eyes, she sees HG looking down at her, watching over her while she slept. It makes her instantly self conscious.

"You need to be going soon." HG whispers in her ear.

Those words slice through Myka's heart. She sits abruptly, mortified, as if HG had slapped her across the face. _HG wants her to leave? _Of course. She had her fun, played her game. It was over. And Myka was a fool to believe that HG meant any of the things she said. Weeks and weeks of torment, and it came down to this. Myka feels like she has been stabbed right through the heart.

"No. " HG says quickly, smiling and softening her tone, grabbing Myka by the wrists, gently caressing them. "I don't mean it like that."

"You made yourself perfectly clear." Myka tells her, refusing to make eye contact.

"I think you understand my...predicament. There is nothing I want more than to be with you, every second of every day. I have a little matter hanging over my head- the regents hunting me down wanting to damn me to eternity in the hellish existence of the bronze sector." The words slip so calmly from HG's lips. Myka flinches at the prospect of the bronze sector.

"Of course." Myka concedes. " I should go." But she makes no move to stand. She can't. She can't walk away. She needs HG to walk away from her.

"I need your help" HG tells her. "I can't run for the rest of my life. It is growing more wearisome by the day."

"Artie won't have anything to do with it, I told you. It's no use. You need to run. To get out of here while you still can. Far away from the warehouse..." Myka's voice broke before she could finish the sentence _'Far away from me.' _

"No." HG answers, resolutely.

"I'm sorry, about everything. If it were up to me, you know things would be different" Myka is speaking quickly, suddenly wanting the painful conversation to be over.

"It _is_ up to you, Myka." The confidence in the woman's voice, combined with the loving way she utters her name, '_Myka_', incline Myka to stop and listen. "I have somewhat of a little plan you might help me with."

Myka eyes the other woman suspiciously, she can't help wondering if she is being played. She is feeling foolish and used. She wonders if everything HG said, everything HG did, was all to make her feel like she was loved, like she was special. As if HG somehow knew that was irresistible to Myka. That it would be impossible for Myka to walk away. And it is impossible.

The funny thing is, HG needn't have gone to all the trouble. If there was anything in Myka's power to do for the other woman, she would have done it. Without being asked.

"I thought if I could prove myself to Artie." HG explains.

"You saved Claudia's life, it made no difference, I'm sorry. You have to forget this." There is panic in Myka's voice now, because she doesn't think HG understands. Doesn't think she realises that if the regents catch her, they are going to bronze her. No questions asked. No second chances.

"Artie wasn't there, he didn't see Claudia so close to death, life ebbing away from her with every breath. He didn't even know there was any danger until it was all over. But if something could affect him, right in front of his face, that would be a different matter entirely. Something he couldn't ignore."

"You want to hurt Claudia again? So you can play hero and save her? No."

"No, Myka. Not Claudia. You."

The conversation is moving too fast for Myka to keep up. HG pulls a syringe from her pocket.

"What the hell is that?" Myka demands.

"Don't be alarmed. Please. You know I would never harm you." HG assures her.

"You just said that's exactly what you planned to do." Myka tells her, horrified. Feeling foolish for going along with this so far, and yet still making no move to leave. She believes HG, or she wants to believe her, she can't tell the difference anymore.

"It's a virus. I created it myself. I have the antedote."

Myka shudders as she stares at that syringe, the eerie coloured liquid glowing in the pale moonlight. She thinks of unknown viruses spreading the world causing mass destruction. And she allows herself to wonder, for the first time, if the regents might have had a reason for the bronzing of HG Wells.

"I can see what you're thinking, I don't blame you for your reluctance. But please hear me out."

Myka can't resist. "Alright."

If she didn't believe in HG just a little, she would have turned and run, screaming for Pete, long ago. She is mesmerised, captivated. And she wants HG to explain it. Wants HG to prove she isn't all those things Artie says she is. She needs to believe it.

"I could inject you with this." She indicated the syringe in her hand. "The effects would begin almost instantly. Small things at first. You'd deteriorate day by day. Artie would no doubt try to find a cure. He would watch the life draining from you, powerless to help you. You wouldn't feel any pain, I promise you that. It's like going to sleep. I would never let anything bad happen to you. Believe me."

Myka nods, she does believe it. God help her, she believes it.

HG continues "And at the last minute, when they have given up all hope, there I will be, cure in my hand, to save the day. How could he turn me away after that?"

"No." Myka shakes her head instantly. "No way."

HG's face falls, as if she is disappointed. As if she expected Myka to proclaim '_Yeah, great idea.'_

"You wouldn't be harmed, in any way Myka, you know I wouldn't harm you, Don't be afraid."

"That is not what I am afraid of." Myka explains. Truthfully, it's not such a crazy idea. "I don't think you have any comprehension of Artie Nielson. It wouldn't make a difference to him. You'd walk in, save my life, and he'd turn you straight over the the regents. He'd probably suspect you of orchestrating the whole thing. And then what?" Myka asks, tears forming in her eyes.

HG sits back, surveying the other woman "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"No. You have to leave. Just run. That's the best thing I can tell you. Just go." Myka tells her, becoming almost hysterical in her insistence.

"What kind of a life is that, Myka? With countless regents all over the world hunting me like an animal? I'll never be safe. I can't live like that. It's scarcely better then being bronzed, looking over my shoulder, just waiting. And all alone."

"It's just not going to work." Myka repeats, shaking her head sadly.

"Have some faith in me." HG implores her.

"I can't let you do this. There is nothing I can do to stop them, if they find you, do you understand?"Myka asks her.

"Just let me try." HG pleads gently, smiling so sweetly, so captivatingly, as if both their lives weren't dangling precariously in the balance.

"No."


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6 **_

"Do I strike you as a person who would take 'no' for an answer?" HG asks. To Myka it sounds almost like a threat.

The thing is, Myka is armed. She has her gun, she has the Tesla. She has options- she is not a helpless victim. Yet she sits there, perfectly still. She sighs deeply as she stares out at the ocean.

"I may as well just turn myself in now? I suppose that's what you want? To see Artie and the regents re-bronze me, send me back where I belong?" HG asks.

"No." Myka answers. She is hurt, and irritated, by that suggestion. It was for HG's own good to put a stop to this plan. No other reason.

"I suppose there is always Pete." HG muses, eyeing the syringe.

"Don't you dare." Myka warns the other woman, fire in her eyes as she turns to face her.

"You care deeply about him." It's almost an accusation.

"Yes, I do." Myka doesn't deny it.

"And not about me." HG adds sadly, sounding almost childlike.

"Why would I be here if I didn't care?" Myka protests. She doesn't quite know why, but she is desperate for HG Wells to believe that, yes, she cares about her.

There is silence for the longest time. Myka wonders whether she ought to pick up her shoes and leave. They've reached an impasse. The night is almost over, the darkness diminishing minute by minute. She ought to get back. HG ought to leave. But she still makes no move. Almost as if HG has cast a spell over her.

Myka is caught off guard by the way HG knocks her to the ground suddenly. Within seconds she feels the burning stinging of the needle entering her skin. Horrified, she struggles beneath the other woman's body. It's futile.

"What have you done?" Myka asks, horror dripping from her voice.

"Forgive me." HG pleads. "One day you'll understand. Things are never as they seem to be. I'm sorry it had to be like this." There are tears glistening in HG's eyes, sincerity in her tone.

She leans forward and kisses Myka. Myka makes no move to stop her, not at first. Angrily, hungrily she returns the kiss. _One last time,_ she tells herself. And then finally she breaks away, shoving HG Wells forcefully aside and scrambling to her feet.

So desperate to be away, Myka leaves her shoes discarded in the sand. HG picks them up slowly as she watches Myka walk away. Myka hears the other woman following her. Slowly, carefully. HG makes no move to approach her. No doubt she knows better. Knows the seething rage Myka feels at being over ruled in such a manner.

Suddenly Myka finds it so difficult to keep upright, she stumbles one bare foot after the other, reaching for nearby wall to steady herself. Everything is blurry, she can't see straight. As her legs give way, and her eyes roll back in her head, she feels HG reach out at catch her.

She mumbles feebly "Don't touch me." But HG Wells pays no attention.

Myka is dimly aware of HG pushing her up the stairs. All she wants is to close her eyes and sleep, but the other woman won't allow it, grabbing her by the arms, all but dragging her to the top of the landing.

As they reach the door to the motel room, Myka slumps to the floor, head in her hands. HG fumbles in Myka's pocket for the room key.

"Myka you have to get up!" She says it forcefully, but she is whispering. And Myka thinks of Pete, across the hall. She wonders what HG has done to him. She wonders what would happen if she screamed his name right now. She wonders, but she doesn't do it. She doesn't know why.

"Myka!" She pleads. There is something in her voice, some desperation, almost fear. It makes Myka think HG Wells hadn't planned this out very well, and that is not a terribly comforting thought.

Still, Myka does what the other woman asks, and makes an attempt to stand to her feet. HG pushes her in the door, and she wants nothing more than to collapse on the bed and sleep. Everything else be damned. But HG is pulling her towards the bathroom.

"Look at you. You have sand everywhere." HG tells her.

"Whose fault is that?" Myka manages to mumble, although it takes all her energy.

HG undresses her as if she were a little child. She is certain HG's fingertips linger over her body longer than is necessary. She opens her eyes for a moment, watching HG. She sees burning desire in her stare. It makes no sense to her.

HG pushes her as gently as she is able under the shower. The water is a rude awakening. All she wants is to close her eyes and sleep. Myka slumps down in the corner under the running water. She is crying. She doesn't even know why. She feels so tired, so confused, so vulnerable, so foolish, and nothing is as it should be.

HG kneels down to her level. "Don't cry, Myka, please." HG says, brushing strands of wet curls from her eyes. HG herself is getting wet, but she doesn't seem bothered by the fact.

Somehow the other woman's touch, her reassuring voice, quells the unrest in Myka's spirit. She is dimly aware of HG taking her by the hand, drying her, dressing her, leading her to the bed and tucking her in as if she were a little girl. HG kisses her on the cheek, laying down beside her, wrapping her arms around her. HG whispers "I'm sorry. It was the only way. One day you will understand why I had to do this."

The very strange thing is, Myka doesn't ever remember feeling so cherished, so safe, in her entire life as she does right in that moment.

And that's the last thing Myka remembers as she surrenders to sleep.

She is rudely awakened by the relentless banging. She rolls over in bed, groaning and pulling the pillow over her head to drown out the intrusion to her sleep. She has a splitting headache. The words of HG Wells ring in her head "_This won't hurt a bit._"

_Oh yes_, she thinks to herself, _it hurts. _

She tries to convince herself the last night had been a dream. A bizarre dream and nothing more. But she doesn't really believe it.

Through the banging, which she has now ascertained is Pete knocking on her door, she hears him calling her name. "Hey Myka, open up."

She wants to ignore him, ignore everything, and drift off to sleep. But he is becoming more insistent with his demands. Almost frantic. And there is only one way to get him to shut up.

Slowly she manages to drag herself out of bed. She is unsteady on her feet, but manages to make it across the room. She tightens her grip on the door handle to steady herself as she opens the door to him.

"No need to break the door down." She manages to tell him.

"Whoa." He says as he stands back and takes a look at her. "Someone had a bit too much to drink last night?" He teases her.

She wonders briefly what time it is, what a mess she must look, what he must think seeing her still in her pyjamas. She says nothing. Partly because she is breathless and doesn't have the energy. Partly because she can't think of a single thing to say. Let him think she is hung over if that's what he wants. She doesn't step aside to let him it, because if she let go of the door handle, she is certain she would collapse.

"Myka?" He asks finally. "Are you ok?"

She makes a supreme effort to lift her head to meet his gaze. "Fine." She tells him. She knows he won't believe it, she says it anyway.

He reaches forward and touches her forehead "You're burning up."

She doesn't say a thing. She wonders in that moment how HG Wells could be so damn confident that she won't spill this whole story to Pete right here and now. Tell him everything, how HG has infected her with a freaky virus, how she had the cure, how she is going to use the whole situation to her advantage to win favor with the regents.

He takes her hand, pulls her close, she collapses into his strong embrace. He is the only thing holding her upright. She feels terrible. She feels afraid. And here is Pete, who has always been her rock. She wants to tell him everything. But she thinks of HG. Thinks about what would happen if the regents found out about this. She just can't bring herself to do it.

"I think you should go back to bed." Pete tells her, leading her by the hand. And she follows behind him, saying absolutely nothing.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7.**

_For Aynot, a very special person who helped me find my voice again. _

_

* * *

_

Myka drifts in and out of consciousness. Sometimes she hears Pete's voice. Or the sound of him clumsily moving about in the motel room, making all the more noise for his attempts to be quiet. She has a vague recollection of a conversation with him, assuring him that she will be fine, that she just has a bad case of the flu. Urging him to go, to finish the case without her.

He doesn't say goodbye, believing her to be asleep. But he lingers for a moment, watching her. Thinking to himself that something doesn't feel quite right, but unable to put his finger on it.

She doesn't actually see him leave. Her eyes are too heavy to open. But she hears the definitive sound of the door clicking shut behind him. The sound echoes in her consciousness. A hollow, empty sound. She tries to think, but she is so exhausted. So confused. She can't quite make any connections in her brain. It leaves her frustrated, powerless.

Without opening her eyes she can tell darkness has fallen outside. It's eerily quiet. Pete is still gone, this she just knows. But she feels like she is being watched. Like every hair is standing on end. Like she ought to run, to fight, to scream. But she does not. She waits, and she listens. She thinks she can hear the sound of someone else breathing right beside her, but the sound is so closely entwined with the sound of her own breathing, in perfect unison. She can no longer distinguish the difference. Perhaps she is imagining it?

When she finally manages to open her eyes, she is caught off guard by the sight of HG Wells sitting on the bedside, only inches from her. She still isn't certain if she is only dreaming. Myka looks, long and hard, up at HG Wells. Without saying a word. She looks and she tries to see HG Wells for a disturbed psychotic. The very essence of evil. The devil incarnate. She tries to see a person devoid of all humanity, deserving of being bronzed. She looks, deeply, into the eyes of HG Wells. And even after all this, betrayal and humiliation, Myka still can not see that darkness in the other woman's soul. Desperation? Yes. Deception? Perhaps. Darkness? No. It just is not there. Myka isn't certain if that makes her exceptionally blind or if it just makes HG an extremely talented actress.

What she does see, alarmingly, in the eyes of HG Wells, is her own reflection. What she senses is a connection. Some sort of unity that she can not articulate with words. Something she has never felt with another human being in her lifetime. Something that confuses her, but does not frighten her. And she can not recall a time where intimacy has not frightened her.

HG is sitting, perfectly still, lifeless, on the bedside. Sitting quite comfortably as if she belonged there. As if there was nothing out of the ordinary. As if she had every right to be there. And yet she doesn't look quite real. The moonlight falls around her like a vision. Myka looks twice, shaking her head slightly, wondering at the bronzing process. At the miraculous preservation of this immaculate, flawless woman across the centuries.

HG Wells does not apologise. Yet there is a hint of apology in her tone, something like regret, which she tries to hide behind the veneer of her enchanting smile. HG offers her explanation, in that lilting delicious accent .

"I had to do it." There is definite uncertainty in her tone. Almost, Myka thinks, fear.

"Evidently." Myka mumbles in reply, as she struggles to sit up. She feels suddenly at a distinct physical disadvantage, and is determined to muster all her strength to at least reposition herself to meet HG at eye level. She senses distant fear emanating from the other woman, and it seems important to Myka to convey her own fearlessness. As if she couldn't care in the slightest, as if HG had no power to affect her. Not just by this mystery virus, but by her very existence.

Myka does not ask HG why she did it. She wants to know. She wants to understand. Desperately. But she can see HG wants her to ask. HG wants to explain. HG is seeking some sort of absolution. And as much as Myka wants to be able to give it to her, she can not. She is angry, she is hurt, she is bitter, and she isn't going to make this easy for HG Wells.

"I know you didn't want to do it. That's why I had to." Is HG's attempt at justification.

It's a twisted logic that Myka can't quite get her head around. She isn't certain it makes any sense,

but everything is so convoluted in her head, she can't make it fit. And so, she makes no answer.

"You would have done it, against everything you believed in, eventually." HG Wells tells her confidently.

"Would I just?" Myka asks, bitterness creeping into her voice.

"I didn't want you to compromise your integrity by going along with something you did not believe in." HG asserts.

"How thoughtful." Myka retorts dismissively.

"If you understood exactly what was at stake..." HG's begins passionately, but her voice trails off, lifeless. She suddenly isn't able to meet Myka in the eye.

"If _you_ understood, even just a little, how much I despise being kept in the dark. Being powerless, having decisions taken away from me..." Myka can't quite finish the thought, let alone the sentence. But she is pleased with the icy venom in her voice, and the stricken look on HG Wells face.

"I can only assure you that one day you will understand, things will be clearer." Now there is blatant remorse in the eyes of HG Wells. Now she sounds like a remorseful little child. But Myka is determined to keep her head, to remain unaffected. Or at the very least, to pretend.

"I understand perfectly." Myka answers her. "You have no respect for me at all."

"On the contrary. I have the utmost respect for you. The utmost admiration." HG protests. "I know it's asking a lot for you to believe it. If there was any other way..." There is undeniable sincerity now. HG's eyes are glistening with tears.

"This is not about Artie at all, is it?" Myka asks, suddenly hearing something catch in the other woman's voice. "It's not about Artie, or the Warehouse."

"It's not _just_ about Artie." HG admits. "It's not just about the warehouse, not even just about me, or you." HG tells her cryptically,

"What does that even mean?" Myka demands.

"I can't explain it all to you right now." HG answers, defensively, growing frustrated. As if she is the one who has any right to be frustrated by this situation.

"Why not?" Myka asks simply. She wants to know. Wants it more than anything.

"You're just going to have to trust me, it's for the best that you don't know the finer details at this juncture." HG answers, keeping her eyes to the floor.

"If that's the case, you might have injected me secretly." Myka points out. "Why tell me anything at all?"

HG Wells has no answer to that. Myka feels a little stab of victory in leaving the other woman speechless.

"What did you come here for?" Myka asks her. Enjoying the fact that she has made HG uncomfortable, though not really understanding why.

"I wanted to see you." HG answers, reaching her hand out towards Myka's face.

"Don't even try it." Myka tells her. "I'm not as stupid as you think I am." Myka tries to make it sound believable. Because, the truth is, and they both know it, Myka is just that foolish, that pathetic. One touch from HG Wells and she disintegrates.

"I don't think you're stupid at all." HG answers. "And I wanted to see you, you must believe that much at least." After careful consideration she continues. "And also, if you want the truth, I need something from you."

"Something _else_?" Myka asks incredulously. She thinks to herself she has already given HG everything, every tiny little part of her soul. She has nothing left to give. Although she doesn't expect the other woman to understand that.

"I need your blood." HG informs her, and in the semi light of the full moon, Myka tells herself she ought to be afraid. Apprehension should be rising in her as HG Wells, uninvited, inches towards her with a needle and syringe in hand.

But Myka makes no protest, verbal or otherwise. She only turns her head away as she feels the hot sharp sting of the needle piercing her skin, and HG Wells draining the very life source out of her.

"Thank you." HG says, awkwardly.

Myka only shrugs. Her head still turned away. There are many things she is willing to overlook. The bronzing. Artie's strong warnings. The fact HG injected her with god knows what. But being kept in the dark, that is something she can not tolerate.

"Myka.." HG begins.

And even though Myka's heart skips a beat to hear her name so tenderly from the other woman's lips, she refuses to turn and face her. Afraid HG will take one look into her eyes and see right through her. Afraid that HG will melt her anger away with one simple glance.

"Just leave." Myka tells her coldly.

"As you wish." HG answers. And it brings Myka little consolation to hear the resigned sadness in the other woman's voice.

* * *

When Myka wakes, hours later, she feels clear headed. She feels stronger. Better. It's not how she had expected to feel. She had expected to be on the brink of death.

Pete is asleep in the armchair beside the bed. She smiles at the sweetness of him. She tries to convince herself that this whole situation is some pyrexia induced hallucination. But she traces the skin of her forearm, and feels the slight round needle mark, the tiny scar HG Wells left behind, and she knows it is all too real.

She finds herself drawn to the balcony, quietly creeping so as not to wake Pete. She isn't surprised when she looks down, and catches HG Wells looking up at her. Smiling at her. And it's not a triumphant smile, nor a bitter smile. It's pure. And, God help her, Myka finds herself smiling back.

She is startled by Pete's hand on her shoulder. She spins to face him, then quickly back to the space where HG had been standing only moments ago. The other woman has vanished.

"Can I get you anything?" Pete asks.

She shakes her head. Sweetness be damned, she only wants him gone. "Just getting some fresh air." She tells him. He picks up from her tone that she resents his intrusion, and without question leaves her alone on the balcony.

As she stares out into the night, she thinks about Pete. Always been there for her. The safety of his arms. The implicit trust between them, implicit and complete. And in her case, completely undeserved. There are so many things she has kept from him. But the guilt of it all is not enough to prompt her to open up to him now.

What is it about him, she asks herself as she stands shivering in the night breeze, what is it about Pete that just isn't enough for her? What is it about him that makes her shudder when he touches her. That makes her want to run downstairs to HG Wells and...and what? Myka doesn't even know.


	8. Chapter 8

_**AN:**__ Apologies for the introduction of Dr Helen Magnus from Sanctuary in this chapter. I'm not a fan of bringing random other characters into fic's. I just needed someone who was extrordinarily old to have known HG before the bronzing. _

_**Chapter 8**_

Myka hears the voices echo in the hallway of the B & B. She is aware of an unfamiliar voice, and strains her ears to listen.

"Thank you for coming, Helen." She hears Artie say. She _almost_ thinks she hears him say '_Helena'_, though the respect in his voice makes that impossible.

"Not a problem, Arthur. May I ask where Dr Calder is?" The voice is familiar somehow, an accent not dis similar from HG Wells. Yet Myka is certain she has not heard this voice before.

"She is currently overseas. Won't be back until tomorrow. This is quite urgent. I would rather not take her to a hospital." Artie explains.

"You suspect artifact involvement?" The woman named Helen, who is not Dr Calder, and not HG Wells, asks.

"It's certainly possible. The onset was sudden, and she's completely unresponsive, yet her vital signs are normal. It doesn't add up."

"Artifacts are not my speciality, as you know. But I would be happy to take a look and help if I can." The woman's gentle voice explains.

"Thank you, I appreciate it." There is a slight shake in Artie's voice as he answers.

Myka feels the woman's fingers on her arm, caring and gentle, yet not the fingers she wants to feel. An entirely different feeling to the way HG Wells had touched her.

"You've taken blood samples already?" The woman named Helen enquires.

"No." Artie answers. Myka can't see him, but she pictures him shaking his head slightly.

"There is a small mark, in her left cubital fossa. It's a distinctive venipuncture mark. It would indicate that someone has taken blood, or injected something into her vein, fairly recently."

"Let me see." Myka feels Artie grab her arm, feels his rough fingers probing her skin. "I didn't notice."

Myka can't open her eyes, but she can see that mark in her minds eye. She had stared at it long enough. She could still feel the white hot sting of the needle piercing into her from HG Wells steady hand. She can still feel the blood draining out of her.

"Pete said she had flu-like symptoms. That was 2 nights ago while they were in Florida. But she recovered the next day. They drove home. She seemed fine at dinner last night. She went to bed. And this morning, we can't wake her."

"It is strange." The woman named Helen concedes. "You are quite correct, her vital signs are within perfectly acceptable limits, no temperature, pulse is strong and regular, blood glucose is stable. BP is a little low, but according to her medical records it's not out of the ordinary. Pupils are equal and reacting to light. Respirations are stable, and oxygen saturations normal. I can only hope analysing her blood will shed some light. Is she responsive at all?"

"No. We tried everything, no reaction at all to voice, light, pain. She looks...haunted." Artie states.

_Haunted?_ Myka thinks to herself, that's how she feels exactly. Haunted by HG Wells.

"She looks fine." Helen assures him. "We will get to the bottom of this. Perhaps you could sit with her while I run these blood tests. Talk to her. Odds are she can hear you. Call me if anything changes."

Myka hears clumsy footsteps up the passage way, and Pete's voice asking "How is she, Dr Magnus?"

He sounds so sad, so worried. She almost wishes she had managed to say something to him before all this happened. To assure him she would be fine. She believed it, somehow, that she would be fine. That HG Wells would take care of her.

"Tell me about the artifact you collected in Florida." Dr Helen Magnus asks him.

"Myka didn't touch it, she wasn't even with me. She was sick, she stayed behind in the motel." Pete explained.

"And before that, what sort or artifacts were you exposed to?" Dr Magnus continues.

"We were doing inventory in the Warehouse all week. But Myka has always been super careful with that, she NEVER plays around with the artifacts." Pete informs her. He then adds quickly "I mean, none of us ever play with them, we are all super super careful."

"All the same, search her room for anything out of place, and call me if you find something. I'll take this blood and see if I can shed some light." The Dr explains.

Myka does not know how much time has gone by. It is silent. And dark. HG had been right, it didn't hurt. But it felt awful- this dark void of nothingness. Being unable to move, to speak, to smile. Not know what is going on around you. Myka wonders if this is what bronzing feels like? Fleetingly she wonders if this is some sort of revenge. If HG Wells has singled her out to represent "_The Warehouse_" and be punished. She despises herself for the thought instantly. But that's what endless time to think does to you. Twists everything. She finds it a little more possible to believe HG might be disturbed, might be dangerous, might be downright depraved, after imagining what all those years being bronzed must have been like.

It feels like an eternity before she hears people speak again. Probably it's been only a few hours.

"What did you find?" Artie asks.

"I'm not quite sure...It can't be possible." Dr Magnus muses.

"What?" Artie asks, alarm in his tone.

"I haven't seen this for a long time, anything like this. It's extraordinary." She still has not answered the question.

"Extraordinarily bad?" Artie asks.

"Just peculiar." Dr Magnus replies.

"Can you fix it?" There is desperation in his tone.

"Yes, and no." She responds cryptically.

"Can you fix it or not!" Artie demands, raising his voice. If she were capable of moving even a single muscle, Myka would have jumped at the ferocity of his question. It makes her feel somehow loved, protected. She and Artie had a rocky relationship from day one, but she had always looked up to him. And he sounds in that moment like a worried father. Something she had never heard from her own fathers voice. And Myka finds it just a little bit comforting. If she were capable of it, she would smile shyly, just a little.

"Please Arthur, keep calm. I Need to run some more tests. And I need some further information. I don't suppose your agents have been involved in any form of time travelling lately?"

"No, not recently. Is it some sort of futuristic virus?" Artie asks.

"On the contrary, I haven't seen this for a long long time as I mentioned, long before your life time."

_Before Artie's lifetime?_ Myka thinks to herself. _How can that be possible? Has this Dr been bronzed too? Has she travelled through time? _

"The warehouse is full of ancient artifacts. The virus could have..." He suggests.

"No." Helen cuts him off. "This virus requires a live host. It is extremely unlikely it could survive so long on an inanimate object and then infect a human being so virulently."

"There is a cure?" Artie asks, in a shaky voice.

"There is a...treatment. There will be side effects. I have to do some more research. Myka is stable for the moment. The condition is not likely to worsen."

"Not likely to worsen? That's not good enough!" Artie bellows.

"What is more worrying to me is where this virus originated from. I can not imagine how it has resurfaced here and now."

"Is it contagious?" Artie asks. "Should we be worried about an outbreak?"

"It is not readily contagious in this form. It is blood borne, be careful handling Myka's blood and there is no real risk of transmission."

"How did she get it then?" Artie wants to know.

"That's the mystery."

There is silence for a moment, and then Artie clears his throat, and speaks. "There was a recent...encounter...with an escapee from the bronze sector." He admits.

"You allow people to escape from the bronze sector?" The Dr asks

"I did not '_allow'_ it." Artie answers defensively.

"May I ask who it was? If it is someone from the right time frame, then it's possible there is some involvement.

"HG Wells."

"Helena?" The woman whispers, as if she knows HG. "You bronzed Helena Grayson Wells?" The Dr sounds horrified.

"Not me personally. She was bronzed. She escaped. It was about a month ago." Artie continues.

"No, that can't be right." Dr Magnus informs him. "This indicates recent contact, within 72 hours I would imagine."

Next, Myka hears Artie yelling for Pete. She hears Pete running up the stairs, and slightly breathless he asks "What's going on? Is Myka ok?"


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9 **_

"Pete did you have any contact what so ever with HG Wells this week?" Artie demands.

"What? No! Of course not! I would have mentioned that. Why do you ask?" Pete asks, slightly insulted.

Artie does not answer Pete's question, typically. He only continues with his own train of thought. "_You_ would have mentioned it perhaps. Myka might not. There was already that time with Claudia."

"They told you about that." Pete answers defensively. He had always taken Myka's side, always defended her.

"They told me after the fact. That's not good enough." Artie reminds him.

"Myka would have told you. She would have told me." It breaks Myka's heart a little to hear Pete has such undeserved faith in her.

"So, you're saying you did not see Helena Wells?" Dr Magnus asks him.

"No, I most certainly did not." Pete assures them, truthfully.

"But it is possible she was there?" Magnus continues.

"It's not_ im-_possible. I mean I wasn't with Myka every second." He is forced to admit.

"You should be!" Artie yells at him. "That's why you have a partner, so you have each others back. Where were you while Myka was off doing god knows what with HG Wells?"

"Arthur, please, this is not helping." Dr Magnus calms him. "Pete, perhaps you could write down every place you and Myka visited in the past 72 hours. The times you were together, and the times you were apart."

"You're wrong about this, Myka would have told me." Pete sticks to his story.

"She might not have even known HG was there." Dr Magnus suggests, trying to keep the peace "So please, start writing.

"Do you have any way of contacting Helena?" Dr Magnus asks Artie

"Contacting her?" He scoffs. "If I had the faintest idea where she was, she would be back in the bronze sector, where she belongs! She seems to be an acquaintance of yours from the 'good old days', why don't you contact her?"

"Helena and I were acquainted, long ago, long before you were born. I had believed she was dead the past hundred and ten years, until you just informed me otherwise. Most of the people I know from the 'good old days' are in fact dead. Though I suppose being bronzed is somewhat a fate worse than death in any case. Nice place you work for, Arthur." Dr Magnus tells him bitterly. And Myka wonders again how this woman could claim to know HG Wells over a hundred years ago.

"Don't speak to me like that, casting judgement on me. I wasn't around when the decision was made to bronze her, It's not my sole responsibility. Not everyone is as old as you, my dear." Artie retorts.

"Yet you just told me you would send her back there in a heart beat. You don't even know her, yet you feel entitled to condemn her to the bronze sector for eternity?" Dr Magnus tries to understand.

"Look what she did to my agent? Yes, that woman is dangerous, she needs to be locked away. You know her so well, perhaps you can find her. Find out what she did to Myka and fix it."

"Perhaps I won't have to." Dr Magnus states cryptically.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Artie demands.

"Helena Wells does nothing without a reason. There must be something behind this. If I could figure out what it is..."

"She is angry at the Warehouse, she is trying to kill us all, who knows. She is crazy, maybe there is no reason." Artie suggests, becoming more irritated by the minute.

"Helena is smarter than that, whatever is going on, there is a reason." Dr Magnus insists.

"With all due respect, you knew her before the bronzing. Isn't it possible she has changed?" Artie questions.

"Possible that a century of torment and torture has changed her? Yes. Whose fault would that be?"

"Does it matter whose fault it is? She is crazy, she is dangerous, always has been or why would she be bronzed in the first place?" Artie wants to know.

"You don't know anything about why she was bronzed, you weren't there. You didn't know her then. I am telling you, there is a reason for this. I don't know what Helena is doing, but I know there must be a damn good reason."

Then Myka hears the footsteps of Dr Helen Magnus retreating, and she is left alone in the room with Artie.

It's never quiet. When there are two or more of them in the room, they talk over her as if she wasn't there. As if she was already dead. When someone is alone they speak to her. It's irritating at times, the constant dialogue. Sometimes she wants silence, to think, to work out what is going on. But then she reminds herself of the long silent years HG Wells spent in the bronze sector, and is grateful for the companionship. She wonders how long they will come visit her, how long before they get bored talking to someone who doesn't talk back. So she makes the most of it while they still bother to visit.

Artie is angry when he speaks. Sometimes he is angry at her, sometimes at himself.

"_I told you HG Wells is dangerous. I told you a hundred times. I made myself perfectly clear. I warned you." Then his voice softens. "I cant blame you entirely. You're very much like me, though I would never tell you that if I thought you could hear me. I've been there, you know. With McPherson. I've told you about it, and I don't like talking about it. But I wanted you to be safe. I tried to make you see. But like me, you're too stubborn, you have to make your own mistakes. I only hope it's not too late. I don't know what she did to you, but I promise you I'll find out. I promise you I will fix it. So don't worry. And, after all of this is over, maybe you'll finally learn your lesson and listen to me. Maybe now you listen to me, and realise that I do in fact know best about everything._"

Myka wants to tell him, he is wrong. Even though she is lying there helpless at HG Wells hand, she wants to tell him he is so wrong. Wrong about HG, that is. He is right about her. She didn't listen to him. And if this all goes wrong and she dies or never wakes up (she can't decide which is worse) then he will be right, and she will be wrong. There will be no one to blame but herself. Sure, HG injected her against her will, but she could have told someone. She could have done something. She wants to tell Artie she appreciates his concern, appreciates that he sat all night by her bedside. Appreciates that he cares even though he knows that she has gone behind his back fraternising with HG Wells. He knows it. The others, maybe not. Maybe they wonder if HG has secretly done something to her. But Artie knows better. Artie knows Myka went along with it. She doesn't know how he knows, but he knows. Most of all she wants to tell him that she thinks of him as a father. That he is ten times the father that her real father was. That she loves him. That it's not his fault. That she is sorry she disappointed him. But probably not sorry enough to act differently if she had the chance.

She wonders what she would say to Artie, if she had the ability to speak. But she is lost for words. One day, if she ever wakes up, if she ever has the chance to explain, she will have to think of something. All her words will fall short, but she will try. Maybe it will mean something to him. Maybe he will despise her forever. She can't help that.

Later Claudia pays her a visit. She doesn't know how much later, because time has lost all meaning.

"_Hey, dude can you hear me? I really wish you would wake up, because I'm kinda outnumbered now, well there's Leena, but she doesn't count. Artie said HG Wells did something to you. Is that true? Because...I know she's a bad guy, I mean I saw her kill MacPherson. And she must have done something bad to be bronzed yada yada yada.. But it's kinda hard to believe she would have hurt you. After everything, I mean she saved my life and all. And she was kinda fun to hang around. It was super fun being out in the field with you. Except the 'almost dying' part, but I guess that doesn't happen every time. So, hopefully we can do it __more often. But you have to get better. Whatever this thing is, you are stronger, you have to be. Because I'm sick of my family dying. And I don't let go easily- ask Joshua. I chased him to the great beyond, and dragged him back here. And I'd do it for you, too. If I had to. But I'd rather not have to, it's kinda a drag. So if you could just get better yourself, that would be super. I miss you._"

Then, there is Pete.

"_Hey, Myka. Can you hear me? I know I used to joke about how much you nagged me about this and that and everything, and I wished for some peace and quiet. But it turns out peace and quiet is very over rated. I'm kinda over it. And how can I be expected to do anything without you bossing me around? We all know you're in charge, I can hardly tie my shoes without you nagging me. Did you hear that? I'm only gonna say that once, So I hope you heard it. And when you wake up, I'm gonna deny I said it. But, Myka, I cant do it without you. You're my partner, my friend. So come back, just wake up. Please? Artie says HG Wells is behind this. He's asking me a bunch of questions- Did I see HG Wells? Did you mention HG Wells to me? The answer is no and no. And you would have told me, right? You would have. You trust me, don't you? You can tell me anything, I hope you know that. Anyway, we're working hard, and we're gonna get to the bottom of this. So you just lie there then and rest, don't spare a thought for the rest of us running around like crazy, You just put your feet up and relax. _

And then, finally, at some point, HG comes to her.

Myka is certain she is dreaming, because how could HG get in here? Didn't Dr Magnus say that someone should be with her at all times? Maybe they left her for dead. Maybe they had given up. How long had she been lying here? An hour? A day? A week? A month? She doesn't know. And she can't expect them to sit by her side for ever.

She knows its HG, even tho the other woman doesn't speak for the longest time. She merely takes her hand, squeezing it gently, and sits silently.

"I'm disappointed in you, Myka." HG finally utters softly.

_The feeling is mutual, _Myka thinks to herself.

"I told you I would never hurt you. I told you this was important. I thought you believed in me. I know you have no reason to trust me, but I believed you did. And I trusted you with something very precious to me."

Myka can't make any sense of what HG is saying to her.

"I overheard Arthur and Pete, talking about how big bad HG Wells had injected you with some virus. Why did you tell them? It would have all been fine if you had just trusted me, just kept your mouth shut. Don't bother denying it. That virus is undetectable even in this day and age, unless you know what you're looking for. And, they don't. So I know you betrayed me."

"I'm surprised Myka. I don't know why. I had no reason to trust you, you had no reason to trust me. But I felt like we had a connection. I would never hurt you. Ever. It's the last thing I'd do. I didn't want things to end this way."

"You're right. I could have secretly injected you, while you were sleeping. Then this wouldn't have happened. No one would know any different. But I wanted to see you. I wanted to tell you everything, Myka I did. I wanted to trust you. I wanted you to trust me."

"I know you can hear me. I know there are things you want to say to me, things you want to ask me. And you would have had the chance if you had just trusted me. But you had to go and ruin everything. "

"I want you to know that I loved you. More than I imagined possible. I thought my heart had shrivelled up and died in those lonely dark years in the bronze sector. I didn't think I was capable of love. But then there was you. That's why I chose you. I want you to know, I still love you. Even after this."

"You're angry. I understand. You're angry I didn't tell you everything. I was afraid. You have no idea what it's like here. I have nothing. I have no one. I don't belong here. But then there was you. My one shining light in this dark dismal world."

"And I couldn't stand to lose you. I couldn't stand for you to betray me. I was so afraid you would choose them over me. That you would believe them over me. And as it turns out, I had every right to be afraid. That's exactly what you did."

"You betrayed me. And I can only be grateful that I never told you everything. You don't understand what's at stake. You don't understand anything. But believe this, I loved you, I never would have hurt you. Believe this, I still love you. And I wish more than anything things could be different."

"Perhaps if I was a better person, I would tell you that you're the most important thing to me. That nothing else matters. Perhaps I would forget all of this. But, Myka, why should I? Am I the most important thing to you? No. You chose them, you betrayed me to them. And I just don't know what you expect me to do now?"

HG doesn't speak any more, but she is still there, tightly squeezing Myka's hand. As if she never wants to let it go.


	10. Chapter 10

_**AN: For the amazing Tonya Buchanan (aka Aynot) who inspired me to finish this story, and is the most amazing person I know. I appreciate everything you do for me more than words can ever say. xoxo**_

_**Chapter 10**_

_~ ...and sometime later. ~ _

"Myka, Myka, it's me." Myka hears the breathless calling of HG Wells. The other woman sounds almost like an excited child.

"Myka." HG tells her. "I'm not someone that finds herself in this sort of predicament. I like to make a decision, and stick to it. I like things to go smoothly, just as I planned. However, there are times that call for a little flexibility. I think this is one of those times. But I'm speaking in riddles. Don't be cross with me, I can't speak freely now. We are not alone. We have company. Oh wait, she can't talk. Unfortunately I had to gag her mouth. So she can't say 'hello' right at the moment, forgive her lapse in manners. Your young red haired friend isn't known for her discretion. I'm sure you understand why I had to tie her to the chair and gag her. At least, I hope you understand. In any case, it's the least of the issues between us at the moment."

Myka's head is racing trying to keep up. HG is here? She has somehow captured Claudia? Tied her to a chair? Myka tries to picture the scene, tries to anticipate the next move. What is HG playing at? What does she want now?

"Well, time is of the essence." HG continues, hurriedly. "And I need you to come with me, Myka. This is difficult. Do you know how hard it was to get in here? Twice? To see you? They care a lot about you. You are very loved. Maybe, too much so, they are all a little distracted by your illness. Which is how I was able to slip past undetected, not quite undetected this time, though. Clever girl, Claudia. Rather unfortunate for her, too clever for her own good."

There is something about these veiled threats against Claudia that make Myka's blood boil. She is more than willing to play any kind of game that HG Wells wants her to. But to involve Claudia, that is not acceptable.

It's as if HG has read her mind. "I didn't choose to involve the girl in this. She got in my way. She won't be harmed, as long as you do exactly as I tell you."

"I promised you nothing would happen to you, Myka, and I stand by my word. It would be safer, one supposes, to leave you unconscious. But I haven't the means to drag you out and deal with that wretched girl. I need you to walk out with me, understand?"

HG laughs to herself then. "I hear you thinking, '_Why would I do that Helena?'_ Why indeed. There isn't time, I wish there was. Time for all this to be different; you just have to do as I tell you, and everything will be fine."

"I'm going to inject you with something now. You will wake up fairly instantly. You must be absolutely silent. I won't hurt you. I won't hurt her. But you must be quiet."

Myka feels her heart racing as Helena leans closer, whispering, out of Claudia's earshot. "There are some unfortunate effects of this injection. I would have liked some more time to make adjustments. The basic fact is this- your symptoms will resolve completely. Instantly, but you will become a carrier for this virus, a highly contagious carrier of a virulent strain of the virus. You must not touch anyone. Not even for a second. They will be instantly affected. Not affected as in a 'nice little sleep' like you. As in 'life abruptly terminated' affected; brain turning into pudding, vasculature exploding into millions of tiny fragments. Very messy, very deadly. Do you understand? You must not touch anyone. I hope you understand. I have no way to know for sure. Here goes. "

Myka feels the familiar sting of the needle, and something cold, like ice, spreading through her entire body. Slowly she awakens; she finds she can open her heavy eyelids at last. She looks up to HG Wells, sitting over her, starring deep into her eyes. HG's hand is covering her mouth. HG whispers. "Do not scream. Do not make a sound. And do _not_ touch anyone."

Myka nods in understanding. HG removes her hand from Myka's mouth, grasping Myka by the wrists. Myka looks down, to HG Wells hands grasping her own. Hadn't she just said "_Instant death_" to anyone who touches her?

"It doesn't affect me." HG informs her, as if reading Myka's mind. "I have immunity."

Something about that fills Myka with immense relief. The thought of not being able touch anyone ever, well that wasn't pleasant. But to never feel HG Wells touch her again, that was unbearable.

"You're freezing." HG observes as Myka is shivering uncontrollably. HG reaches for a blanket folded at the end of the bed, as Myka struggles to sit up. As HG wraps it protectively around her shoulder, Myka catches sight of Claudia, gagged and bound in the corner of the room, just as HG described.

"Claudia..." Myka mumbles in a shaky voice.

"Shhhhh." HG reprimands her, as she feels HG's fingers over her mouth instantly. "I told you to be quiet."

By all this 'quiet' business, Myka can deduce that Artie, Pete, and maybe Dr Magnus are not far away. She could scream. Claudia can't, her mouth is gagged, but Myka could scream. She doesn't, though, even with Claudia looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to do something heroic to save the day.

Myka is torn. Alone, she may have followed HG into the night, no questions asked. But Claudia complicates things. Those eyes, frightened, hopeful, adoring; just waiting for Myka to make everything ok.

HG leans close again. "I need to you to come with me, understand?"

"But..." Myka protests.

"There is no time." HG insists, impatiently. "I need you to come with me."

"Ok." Myka concedes. She turns away from Claudia's confused eyes staring into her.

"I need them not to follow you." HG continues.

"How do you expect me...?" Myka begins helplessly.

"I'll leave that to you. I'll be waiting downstairs. You have 15 minutes. We must hurry. Do what you have to do." HG instructs, and punctuates the order by handing Myka a gun.

Claudia is struggling to free herself, and manages finally to get the gag away from her mouth.

"Myka? Myka? What's going on?" Claudia demands.

Myka looks from Claudia, to HG, unable to formulate an answer. She doesn't know what the hell is going on.

"Shoot her, Myka!" Claudia is urging. "What are you waiting for? Hurry the hell up, shoot her, and untie me!"

"Good god, girl, can't you be quiet for five god damn minutes?" HG snaps at Claudia in frustration.

"She really can't." Myka finds herself mumbling in response.

"Do what you have to do, my love." Helena repeats to Myka, as she brushes her hand gently over Myka's cheek. "Meet me downstairs. Fifteen minutes."

"And if I don't?" Myka asks.

"If you don't?" HG repeats in puzzlement, as if that was not an option that had occurred to her at all. "Why would you not? What choice have you?"

HG lets the unanswered question hang in the air as she slips out the window.

There is silent confusion for a moment, before Claudia speaks. "Myka? Untie me."

"I'm sorry Claud." Myka manages to utter as she stands hesitantly to her feet. After days of lying unconscious it wasn't easy to stand. It takes a moment for the room to stop spinning. She won't look at Claudia, she can't. Myka looks at the ropes tightly binding Claudia's hands. HG's words ring in her head- instant death to anyone who touches her. She can't risk it. Maybe it's a lie. But maybe it isn't.

"Don't listen to her, she is lying, whatever she is saying to you Myka it's a lie." Claudia insists. "I get it, I liked her too, she's pretty awesome, but she is dangerous. Whatever she wants you to do, don't do it. You know better Myka. Listen to me. Untie me."

"Myka, I don't know what she is talking about, but you have a choice. I don't know what she's done, but listen to me Myka, look at me. She did this to you, made you sick with some crazy virus. She tied me up here. She can't be trusted. Artie was right, she is dangerous."

Myka can't look at her, she won't. She only tightens her grip on the gun. Not because she intends to use it to harm Claudia, or anyone. But she may need it for protection. Not her own. Someone else's. She might need it to keep people away. Claudia was taken care of for the moment, safely tied to that chair. But there were the others. And as for how to stop them coming after her, that would take a little thought. A little more thought than fifteen minutes being put on the spot can give. And she wonders, not for the first time, why the hell she should go along with any of this?

"I'm sorry Claud." Is all she can manage to say as she walks right on past, out of the room, careful to keep a distance from Claudia to avoid inadvertently touching her.

She wishes there was something she could do, to dispel that disappointment in Claudia's eyes. She wishes, just a moment too late, that HG had re-tied that gag around Claudia's mouth before she vanished out the window, because Myka cannot touch it. Unfortunately, for them all, the very next thing Claudia does is scream for Artie, loud enough to shake the windows. And there is nothing Myka can do to stop her.


	11. Chapter 11

There is time, not much, but some. Time enough that she could have got away. Could have followed HG Wells straight out that window before Artie and Pete arrived. Could have just followed blindly into the night and never looked back. She wanted to. How easy it would be to just run off into the night. No consequences. Never having to answer for her actions, her choices. But HG Wells words ring in her ear- _Make sure they don't follow_. And so, Myka knows she must obey. Blindly. Because, evidently, this is what her life has now become. Ignorant obedience to a mad woman with no thought to the consequences.

It was entirely possible she would have followed HG anyway. Without all this intrigue and drama and threat of deadly diseases. But for now, she thinks about protecting her team. The word sits uncomfortably in her dishevelled mind. They aren't her _team_ anymore. Something has shifted. Somehow, she has made a choice. Without really meaning to. She has dissociated herself from them. Worse, she has betrayed them. She thinks of the threat she has brought upon them. She takes a deep breath as she faces the fact. She walked into this. What ever this is she deserves it. She walked in with her eyes wide open, carelessly disregarding the warnings about HG Wells. But Artie, Pete, Claudia, they didn't deserve any of it.

Pete is first to come running. His face lights up when she sees her. A huge goofy grin. Bright and carefree. She is certain her heart stops beating, just for a second, when he looks at her.

"Myka, you're awake!" He states the obvious, gleefully. He has not yet spied Claudia shacked to the chair in the corner of the dimly lit room. And if he has seen the haunted look of desperation in Myka's own eyes, he makes no sign of it.

He is purely happy, concerned, maybe a little taken aback to see her recovered so quickly. Instantly he is moving towards her, and she knows she must stop him.

Simultaneously Artie has arrived in the doorway, and instantly Artie's eyes fall to Claudia. Distantly she can hear Claudia frantically calling out random words. Letters, really. All Myka hears is _"HG HG HG"_. And its hypnotic.

She can feel Pete, from across the room. Feel his presence, his support, his unwavering faith in her. His concern, his trust, his loyalty. It's painful and meaningless all at the same time.

She feels threatened, which is ridiculous, she is standing there, three unarmed people, one tied to a chair, she has a gun, and supposedly has a deadly virus pulsing through her veins, she could kill them with one touch, if HG Wells is to be believed. Yet she feels small. It's the way they are looking at her. Confused, concerned. The weight of the betrayal crushing her soul.

It's all so backwards. Don't they know what she has done? What she is about to do? But they stand there, looking at her in the way they always have. In their eyes, nothing has changed. It infuriates her for more reasons than one. That they don't see. That they don't understand. That they don't know her at all. It's a bitter sting of disappointment.

HG knows her, looks right at her and through her and knows everything. It is a ridiculous comparison and she knows it. Knows that the fact they think the best of her should be taken as a compliment. It's not something to complain about.

It's then something finally clicks in her addled brain. Something shines through the madness. She realises the pure and utter insanity of all of this.

Looking at Pete, Artie, and she can't cant quite bring herself to look at Claudia shackled to that chair, disappointment and confusion in her eyes.

Sure, in the beginning, it was small things, it was tiny steps, forging a connection to HG. It was her silent admiration. Her horror at the cruelty of bronzing. Then came working with her, talking to her, touching her. Closer and closer. Undeniable and yet so so crazy.

All of this, horrific madness, and the people she loved dragged right along into this.

Something about it sickens her. As well it should. All this time she had been lying to her team, putting them all in jeopardy.

Arti begins inching over to Claudia. Artie and Claudia talk frantically to each other, Myka drowns it out.

Pete is the only one who talks "to" her. "Myka" His voice is calm. The kind of forced calm that only heightened her anxiety. "What's going on?"

Claudia answers him "HG was here. Tied me to a chair. She put some kind of brain washing spell on Myka, some kind of artifact." Claudia insists.

"She gave me a cure." Myka says in a small voice. She feels, madly, like even now she has to defend HG. Somehow, she needs to say something nice about her. She knows it falls on deaf ears. But it's involuntary. "She didn't do anything to me, she gave me a cure, and now I'm fine." Myka insists in a shaky voice as she holds the gun in her slightly shaking hands.

It's not clear in her mind. She remembers only HG Wells touch. She thinks of HG, waiting downstairs for her. It stirs something she can not deny.

Artie makes a move to untie Claudia 鉄tart talking, tell me everything!" He booms.

" orders Artie. 哲ow."

Artie isn't phased by the sight of the gun, in Myka's outstretched steady hand, nor the fire in her eyes. He can't compute that she would hurt him, or hurt Claudia. It's only when she pulls the trigger, and the bullet narrowly misses Artie's head, he hears the swishing sound, and its a little too close to comfort. He forgets Claudia for the moment, and turns to Myka, holding her steady in his gaze. "What has HG done to you?" Artie mumbles more to himself than to Myka.

Myka takes a breath, and tells herself she never meant to hurt him, tt was a safe shot, she was a good shot, could have got him right in the heart if she wanted to. She didn't hit him, no where close. But she is a little scared at how easily she lost control, how easily she pulled the trigger without a second thought.

"Myka." Pete begins, inching towards her with his hands up. "Something happened to you." He tells her gently. "Let me help you, ok?"

There are tears in Myka's eyes, she can't fight them. "Nothing happened to me Pete. I've been lying to you all for a long time. Working with HG Wells. And now I intend to leave with her."

"If that's true, Myka, why are you crying? If you want to leave with her, why are you crying? Answer me that?" Artie asks.

"I don't have to tell you anything." Myka retorts bitterly. Though her heart stops again, as she realises it's the first time Artie wanted to actually talk to her about how she was feeling. How many months she had tried to get through to him. And it would be so simple to give in, tell him everything, let him find an answer. But she knows she can not endanger anyone in that way. Endanger him, Pete, Claudia, or endanger HG. Artie wanted no more than to see HG on the bronze sector. Myka couldn't let that happen. Couldn't blame HG for being a little angry and even a little crazy.

"Myka, just stop. Just think. There could be an artifact at work." Pete reasons.

She laughs then "How I wish you were right." She admits, shaking her head slightly.

"Let me try something, ok? We have been partners for a long time. And if what you say is true, and you don't want to be my partner, you want to leave, I wont stop you, but I have to know that it's what you really want. I need you to let me try something, ok?"

"Ok." She answers quietly, as she feels her heart racing. The look of faith in Pete's eyes is heartbreaking.

"Ok I'm gonna go get something, and you stay here with Artie and Claudia, and all just stay calm ok, no one move til i get back."

"Ok" Myka agrees.

"Myka?" Claudia asks, as Artie tries to silence her.

Myka makes no answer, wont even turn her head.

"Please don't ignore me, Myka. I know you can hear me."

"I hear you Claud." Myka answers involuntarily, but wont look at her.

"I know this isn't you. You can tell me all you want, I know something is going on. And I want you to know that I know, that I wont stop til I get to the bottom of this."

Myka says nothing.

"I love you Myka, you're like my sister. This is my family, and I'm not letting you go. Just so you know."

Claudia is crying now too, and all Myka can do is answer "l love you too, Claud." Without turning her head.

They hear Pete's footsteps up the stairs and stop talking. He has two things in his hands. A bucket of purple goo and a piece of crumpled paper.

"We talked about this before, after the Alice thing." Pete tells her.

She nods.

"Prove to me there is no artifact at fault here. Empty your pockets."

She does so, throwing all the miscellaneous items into the purple goo. No reaction.

"Now the gun." He tells her.

"No." She shakes her head.

"Ok, you take my gun instead." He offers the gun to her.

"Put it on the bed." Myka orders, not willing to risk taking it from his hands. She might transmit the disease.

He complies. She takes his gun and throws HG Wells gun into the bucket of goo. No reaction.

"Satisfied?" She asks.

"Almost." He tells her. They exchange a glance.

"I'm sorry I have to do this..." He tells her.

Afraid of him coming too close, she reaches for the bucket of goo herself, before he can, and pours it over her own head.

Pete waits, holding his breath. But through the purple mess of her curly hair cascading down her shoulders, the streaks of sticky goo trailing down her face, Pete sees those hardened eyes shining through. Nothing has changed.

"One more thing." Pete tells her, as he opens the crumpled piece of paper. "You remember the code we arranged, if something happened, so I would know it was the real you, if something happened..."

She doesn't let him finish the explanation "Six Four Seven Two Two Nine Four Six Three" She rattles off the code she memorised. The Alice Code, they called it. So Pete could know, next time, if some lookalike had taken Myka's place. "I'm sorry it's hard for you to understand, Pete. But it's not an artifact, I'm not an imposter, I haven't been brainwashed. I'm me. And I've made my choice." She points his own gun at him, then to Artie and Claudia. "I will be leaving now, Do not follow me."

No one speaks, No one knows what to say. Powerless to stop her, Pete steps aside and lets her walk past. As her footsteps echo down the stairwell he feels each beat stab through his heart. But there is nothing he can do to stop her. Truth is, he had seen her admiration for HG. And it's not all that much of a surprise to him. His instinct is to tackle her to the ground and tie her up until she sees sense. But she has a gun, is clearly unstable. And for the first time, ever, he feels that he just can't get trough to her. That had really, never ever happened before. He was the one who could always break through, her pain, her guilt, he was her partner. But he vows this is not the end. He will find her, and he will get to the bottom of this. And get HIS Myka back. And HG Wells? HG is gonna pay for this. Big time.

HG is impatiently tapping her fingers on the dash of her car. Finally, she spies Myka running towards the car. She breathes a sigh of relief. There was a part of her that wondered if Myka would come. She spies Myka opening the passenger door, covered in that hideous purple goo. 的 just had this car complains. 哲ow there will be purple muck everywhere, Do you know how hard it is to wash that stuff away?Helena sighs.

"Well I'm so terrible mocks sarcastically, even with a tinge of the english accent. 的t wasn't very easy getting out of there, just so you know. I did what I had to. Do you want me to get in the car, or not?熱yka demands, herself losing patience.

"By all means, welcome tries not to notice her beautiful car being covered with slimy, purple goo. She hands Myka a towel from the back seat to wipe the goo from her face.

"Thank says. It sounds ridiculous, '_thank you for infecting me with a dealdy virus HG Wells.'_

"I heard a observes as she speedily pulls away from the B&B

"Nothing assures her.

"Well done, Agent Bering. Well, its time we were on our way."

Myka takes a moment, just one, to look back over her shoulder. She isnt sure what she expected to see? Maybe Pete running after her? Maybe Artie and Claudia too? But it is still, she sees no one. There is no one anymore. Just HG Wells.


End file.
